The present disclosure is directed generally to a training system a method for a moving asset and in particular, to a real asset-to-simulated environment bridge and method.
The role of an airline is to safely transport passengers from one destination to another. Airlines are continuously working to improve safety and performance. Their efforts fall into two major categories: aircraft maintenance and aircraft operations. With respect to the latter, the Federal Aviation Authority requires pilots to be licensed and have minimum levels of specified training and experience. Such training typically includes the use of flight simulators which essentially replicate the flying experience. These simulators operate under one of several simulation communication protocols, such as the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) protocol, the High-level Architecture (HLA) protocol and the Training Enabling Architecture (TENA) protocol. Simulators are also heavily used in connection with military aircraft for military training purposes. For example, in 2000, the Boeing Company linked its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) simulator in St. Louis with four high-fidelity, networked F-15 simulators at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. in order to conduct real-time cooperative training exercises.
Simulators are an essential technology since they allow safety-critical operations to be examined in real-world settings without the associated risk. However, to date, such training exercises have only allowed for simulated assets and not real assets. As a result, the training experience is less realistic. In addition, since the real asset can only be simulated, the simulator must change each time the real asset is upgraded or modified. This is not only costly, but also results in a substantial lag time during which the simulated environment is out of date. Moreover, since only a certain level of training can be accomplished in a simulator, the integration of a flight asset with the simulation environment will greatly enhance the education level of the users. The interaction between simulated and flight assets is inhibited by the inability to share critical information from the flight control system and the mission computer. Training systems do not connect to live assets because of the limitation of the communication connectivity. In particular, live systems do not communicate using the DIS or HLA protocols to provide the true interaction with simulated systems. Rather, the only method currently available to get platform flight parametric data in the simulated environment is to integrate a telemetry pod, which requires extensive support equipment and facilities. In such a case, however, the training system is still limited to the use of only simulated assets that operate under the same protocol. Accordingly, there is a need to bridge or connect the flight/navigation parameters and other critical data of a real flight asset into the simulated environment in order to provide the ability to carry out coordinated training exercises with both real and simulated assets acting in concert across a plurality of different simulation communication protocols.